


The Turn of Leaves

by DarkJediQueen



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: A Very Sterek Fall Fest 2020, All Human AU, Alternate Universe, M/M, One-Shot, Scott is a good but absent and distracted friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:14:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26931202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Stiles loves the idea of the haunted maze in the Preserve until he gets separated from Allison and can't figure out how to get out. Though it leads to something wonderful, he can't really be that upset.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Stiles Stilinski & Allison Argent
Comments: 16
Kudos: 258
Collections: A Very Sterek Fall 2020





	The Turn of Leaves

**Author's Note:**

> **Year** : Future  
>  **Spoilers** : Everything  
>  **Notes** : For A Very Sterek Fall Fest 2020 Theme of Pumpkin (Spice), Spooky, and Autumn Leaves.  
>  **Beta** : Grammarly

Stiles really hated it when he did things with Scott and his current girlfriend. He looked at where they were going on a romantic couple's hayride. There were four rows of bench seats on the trailer being pulled by the tractor. Stiles still wasn't sure where the city had got the tractor for this. The benches allowed for the couples to think that they were the only ones there. It took about two seconds before Scott and his girlfriend were kissing, and not long after that, the other couples were as well. Stiles sighed and headed over to where the stands selling food and drink were. The fall festival had been going on for the last decade, and Stiles hadn't missed it since the start unless he was at college, and even three of those five years, Stiles had made it back for the weekend. It was always the weekend of or before Halloween, and this year Halloween was on a Sunday. Stiles would be going tomorrow with his father, but tonight was supposed to be a night to have Stiles get to know Scott's newest girlfriend. Yet, so far, she and Scott had done the haunted walk without Stiles when he talked to his father, who was on duty tonight to help people get found when they got lost in the Preserve. Now they were doing the couples' hayride, and when they got done, Scott needed to leave to be able to get up on time to head into work and check on the animals. The clinic wasn't open on Sundays, but he had to check on all of the animals, and he usually spent a few hours playing with all of them.

The food was wonderful sounding, and so far, Stiles had tried five of the stalls, at least one thing from each. The drinks were all the same. Stiles figured he would be floating by the time that he left. He was in line for the pumpkin cider before he headed into the Preserve for the haunted walk. It was new this year, and Stiles was so looking forward to it. It was supposed to be something like a mix between a corn maze, without the corn, and a haunted house. There were black curtains hung up all over, and the Hales had been working on it for weeks, getting it all laid out. It was thought up by newly returned Derek. The prodigal son who was now a school teacher for the high school.

Stiles heard a few people screaming in the Preserve and laughed as he stepped up to place his order. He handed over his travel mug and smiled when Cora laughed at him.

"Really?"

"You know I love Halloween," Stiles said.

"I know, but come on." Cora handed back the mug with the lid snapped on, and Stiles handed over his money. "How did you even find that?"

"Oh, I special ordered it."

"It matches that stupid tie that you wear and that suit you had made last year."

"Yup, it's all from the same fabric. I sent a swatch in, and they made it custom. It's really cool, right?"

"It's really nerdy," Cora said. She waved him away since there were now people behind him. Stiles took the cup handed to him, and he waved before leaving. He found his father at the edge of the Preserve, still where he was.

"Thank you," Noah said as Stiles handed him the pumpkin cider.

"Cora handed it over. I don't think she charged me for it."

"No, security gets free drinks all night to stay warm."

"Ah, that's nice. A good way to keep you happy. Had to go after anyone?"

"No. Thankfully, we've got Derek in there this year doing patrols as well."

"What for?"

"I think to make sure that no one goes after kids."

Stiles nodded his head at that. There were three paths inside of the maze—one for kids that was slightly scary. There were two for the adults—one was just a bunch of puzzles and took brain power to get through, and then one that was puzzles, but if one messed up, they ended up in scary situations. Stiles was going to do that one, which is where all the screams were.

"Where's Scott?"

"Making with Malia," Stiles said.

"Kira?" Noah asked.

"Okay, whoever he's boning now." Stiles really couldn't remember her name. Malia was the last, and Stiles thought that it was pretty brave of him to show up for this when her father and her step-father were around somewhere. Though Malia didn't seem to be too upset over it all, she was still kind of friendly with Scott and had gone out drinking with Stiles and Cora the last weekend.

"How long before he dumps her for Allison?" Noah asked.

"Um, whenever she's back in town?" Stiles said.

Noah turned Stiles around and there with Peter, and Chris was Allison, looking like the archery princess she was.

"How long is home for?"

"Three months as she works on a few local stories that she just needs to go out of town a few days a week, but it all local."

"Why did you not tell me this?" Stiles asked.

"Because Peter asked me not to until I saw her around town. I guess she's gonna try and be local a lot more for a while. It's a developing situation."

"A...holy shit." Stiles looked at his father. He had used that term once before concerning a woman, and it had been when she had been pregnant. "Do you know who the father is?"

"Not Scott, she's not far enough along for it to be from her trip here last."

"Well, I'm gonna go snag her from the parental units, and then she is going with me into the Preserve. I need an appropriate scare buddy." Stiles shot his father a mock salute with his travel mug and then headed over to where Peter and Chris were talking with Allison. The sun had finally fully set, so the Preserve would be the right kind of scary.

"ALLISON MY LOVE!" Stiles screamed as he rushed over to her. He didn't hug her like he normally would, which involved picking her up and spinning her around. She pouted at him when he just hugged her.

"Told you Noah would tell him that as well," Peter said.

"Nah, Daddio didn't spill that on purpose. He used a term he had used before to talk about a woman being pregnant when she didn't want it known to talk about Allison. It wasn't hard for me to make that leap. He forgets that I listened to all of his calls when he was called at the house growing up. I heard shit I never should have."

"Shush!" Allison said as she covered her stomach with both hands. "Baby!"

Stiles laughed with Peter and Chris following along right behind.

"You are going to be the worst parents," Peter said.

"What?" Stiles said. He looked at Allison because he had not ever had sex with her. He had never even thought of having sex with her. From the moment that Scott had brought her over to a gaming night and she had smoked Scott's ass in the game, Stiles had loved her. Every time she and Scott broke up, Stiles felt like the kid being fought over by the parents. Stiles always ended up winning her in the breakups. Scott usually moved onto someone else, and then he was forgotten, at least when Scott was with Allison, she made Scott pay attention to him by paying attention to him herself.

"You two are co-dependent when you are living in the same city. Allison is taking a job at the newspaper after she gives birth, so she'll be here," Chris said.

"Really?"

"Go," Peter said as he shoved at Stiles to get him to leave.

Stiles snagged Allison's hand and pulled her along with him. When they got in the line to head into the maze, Allison snuggled into him. He handed over his travel mug. She hummed as she took a drink. She kept the mug, but Stiles wasn't shocked about that.

"So, who is the father?"

"A guy I was with during my last photoshoot in Africa. He doesn't want the kid at all and is basically paying all of my medical bills and our care until one year after they are born to make sure that I never darken his step again. So that's what Dad means about co-dependent. I wanted to put you as the father on the paper. I've already discussed it with Peter, and there won't be anyone coming after you for child support with the way he's going to do it. It'll be like you are the sperm donor, and it would only be if something happens to me, you would step in and make decisions."

"Not your father?"

"You know how Dad was with everything with mom when she got sick. I can't...ask him to do that."

"Gotcha." Stiles understood that. His father was his medical power of attorney unless the decision was to be made to terminate his life if his body was just a vegetable. Peter was good at that kind of law. It was good to let him deal with it. "I'll have my lawyer get with your lawyer."

Allison laughed.

"Don't make out inside!" someone yelled from the ticket stand as Stiles and Allison were headed inside.

"Dude, that's gross," Stiles said.

"Duh," Allison said back.

The harder of the two, which was also the scarier one, was a lot of fun. Danny had created a map for the maze that was like an app so that they didn't have to juggle papers and their phones. If someone was a Luddite, there were paper versions for them. Stiles didn't like those kinds of people.

"I don't know why they call it morning sickness," Allison said.

"Why?" Stiles looked at her, shining the light on his phone toward her but not at her. She looked like she was going to throw up. Stiles tapped out the SOS on his phone. Whoever was handling security would send someone after them. Stiles didn't want to try and take her back while she was throwing up.

"I'm good for a few minutes, you go ahead."

"I'm not leaving you. I hit the send help button, and it sent our location with it based on where we are in the whole maze thing."

"I've got her, Stiles and crackers and ginger ale," Noah said as he came up behind them. He did indeed have a can of ginger ale in his hand and a package of crackers. Behind him was Chris, and he tucked Allison into him.

"Sorry," Allison said.

"It's fine. I'll go through, and if you feel up to it, we can go back to mine and watch a movie."

Allison nodded her head and then looked like she was going to throw up again. The pop was opened, and she took a drink of it. Stiles watched them until the light from his father's headlamp was gone, and then he looked down at his phone again and woke it up so that he could read where he needed to go next. He had already sent in a few critiques on a few directions that were messed up a little. Stiles was sure the feedback was for the app's issues, not the directions, but he didn't care.

Another ten minutes and he was on the tenth of forty stops, and he had already gone down three wrong tunnels and hated himself as now he was alone, there was no one else around, and he was actually getting a little bit scared. Now he understood why there had been low sign-ups for this route.

Stiles turned a corner, and he knew as soon as he did that it was wrong. He saw the lights shining on the skeleton that was hanging there with blood dripping from somewhere above. He spun around and screamed as he saw someone coming toward him. The staff was not supposed to move around like that, and Stiles was too alone for it to be anyone who was following behind. They hadn't caught up with him when he was waiting with Allison, and he had been going pretty quickly.

"Stiles?" the person called out.

"Who goes there?" Stiles held his phone up to shine it right in the asshole's face, only it was just Derek. Derek, who had grown up hot as hell and someone that Stiles was crushing on. Someone his age should not have a crush. Especially not on someone who was five years his senior and was straight. Everyone knew about the last two relationships that he had, with an older woman who had gone insane and tried to kill him and his family when he broke things off with her when he realized how unhealthy it was for him to be sixteen and with an adult. The second was a woman around his age right after college while he had been teaching in San Francisco. She had gone crazy and killed other people, thankfully not going after Derek, but it was enough. Stiles kind of figured after that he would swear off women, but Derek had been seen around town with a US Marshall on what looked to be dates.

Stiles liked Braeden well enough when she wasn't butting on his cases. Beacon City didn't have a huge FBI field office, but he had enough work to make his life living hell when she showed up to throw a wrench in the works. After Stiles had seen her on a date with Derek, he had wanted to hate her more, but he couldn't. He had never made a move on in word or deed, so he couldn't be upset that he was seeing someone.

"You did well at making this spooky as hell."

"I heard your father say that he brought your companion out."

"Yeah, she was feeling under the weather, nothing to do with your little fun here."

"Good. I wanted scary now throw up your guts," Derek said.

"Well, you nearly got me with the blood, but then I have issues with all kinds of blood. It's supposed to be inside of the body."

"Good to know," Derek said. The smirk on his lips told Stiles that he didn't really care that Stiles had nearly thrown up. "Are you going to finish?"

"Well, I aim to, but the directions kind of suck."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I keep dropping app feedback. I'm sure that Danny will give you a good breakdown of everyone one that I find lacking."

Derek laughed and shook his head. He looked around where they were and waved Stiles in a direction that the directions hadn't told him to go. Stiles narrowed his eyes and glared at Derek's retreating back, but after a few seconds, he followed him. The next clue was around the bend. Stiles looked back and went through it all in his head. 

"You are shit at this part," Stiles said.

"Yeah, I've had more than few tell me that. I'll make sure to hire in help next year," Derek said.

Stiles could hear the mocking in the tone. He reached out and flipped over the sign that told him what he needed to do next. He read the trivia question and tapped the choice on the phone and got the next directions. Derek waited for him to pick the way he needed to go before falling into step beside him. "Are you going to go with me?"

"Well, I can't have the son of the Sheriff getting lost, can I? I would be shut down on this for next year." 

Stiles wasn't sure that he liked Derek's tone, but he went along with it. He followed the directions and found the next sign easy. It was almost too easy from there out until he got the last five. He found himself turned around and went back to the thirty-fifth sign and read it over and looked at his phone again. There was no good cell service, and he swore that he had got the question right. 

Derek was laughing beside. 

"Okay then asshole, why don't you tell me what the answer is."

"OH, you have the answer right, you are just reading the directions wrong."

Stiles glared at Derek before looking at his phone again. He found the step that he missed and shoved at Derek. Derek stayed three steps behind him like he knew what was coming, and the bastard did. Stiles took every single turn slowly and looked to his left and right after doing it. Stiles was just about to give up being worried about what was coming and putting it down to Derek being an asshole when something fell over him. He screamed and started to thrash. Someone else came at him, and he reacted well enough to kick them in the crotch. He hit a cup, so at least he was pretty sure it was a guy. 

"I told you not to rush them," Derek said. 

"But..." a female voice said.

"Erica." 

There was no reaction from Erica. Stiles tried to regain a little dignity and got the net off of him before looking up to see Isaac in the tree. He was grinning at Stiles, so he flipped him off. 

"The sign is up here. Erica out." Derek sounded really pissed off. 

"I told you," Isaac said.

"Fuck you!" Erica said before storming off. 

"Sorry, she's supposed to stay by the sign and just look creepy instead of rushing at people in nets."

"Well, she's wearing a cup, so she was pretty sure that people would react to her. Next time make sure that she's outside of this place," Stiles offered.

"Yeah." 

Derek was quiet the rest of the trip through to the end of the maze. There was another jump scare, and one of the signs was being held by what looked like a fake skeleton wrapped in fake skin and possibly real meat of some kind. Stiles hated it, but his heart was pumping as he made it to the end. He wasn't sure what was on the other side. No one talked about it. Stiles stepped out of the area blacked out by curtains and looked all around, including up this time. He tried to figure out what was supposed to happen now when the lights came on at the porch. This wasn't the Hale House. It was smaller, and there was a huge pumpkin patch that only had a few pumpkins left in it, mostly small ones, but one was massive. It was dead center in the patch and had been carved up to look like a wolf howling at the moon. This wasn't scary; it was kind of nice, actually. He didn't want to know what went into keeping the pumpkin patch from being eaten by the Preserve's wildlife, but he figured that it was just another thing that the Hales did well. 

"That was kind of great, except for the bad directions," Stiles said.

"I'm glad you liked it. I heard your father say you are coming back tomorrow night with him."

"Yeah, he wants to come as a participant and not security, and you know that I adore everything fall, and I won't say no to the whole thing again."

"Yeah, Uncle Peter said you are here every chance that you can get over the years. Why do you love fall so much?"

"It was Mom's favorite, Halloween especially. She used to decorate the house as soon as it was the first of October. She would go around the block and get leaves from trees to make big leaf piles for me to play in. It used to hurt, but every year it got a little easier to be happy again. The office is covered in decorations, and everyone really enjoys it. Our Unit Chief is a little bit of an asshole about it, but when his kids visit, they love it, so he tolerates it. We get just as excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as other holidays that anyone in the office celebrates that time of year. Easter is a little less, but we do eggs all over the place, usually for the other staff's kids. We stuff them with stuff and kind of hid them in hard places. It's usually candy or even money inside. Sometimes a few toys."

"That sounds fun," Derek said. He pointed Stiles up to the back porch, and there were a carafe and cups. "It's pumpkin spice herbal tea."

"Seriously?" Stiles walked over and poured out some of the tea and tried it. It wasn't horribly hot, but it was enough that he could feel it. He had run out of his pumpkin cider a while back. 

"There was no one else in the maze after you went in, so that one was shut down. You can take as much as you want."

"No one wants nightmares this late at night." Stiles looked at his phone. He hadn't been paying attention to the time. It was nearly midnight now. The fair part would be going on for another hour. It was a hike away from where he was, though. Stiles assumed at least as he had no real idea where the hell he was. He looked around, trying to figure whose house it was. It was a Hale's as this part of the Preserve was all theirs. There were hiking paths through that people were allowed to use, but there was no hunting on their land, and there were always issues every year with hunters going into their land. 

"No, fill up, and I'll get myself some, and I'll walk you back."

"A personal escort? You know my father probably wouldn't throw you in jail for losing me, right?"

"Yeah, it's the probably that worries me." Derek was grinning as he said it. "I actually just don't want you getting lost. I don't want to have to spend hours searching for you." 

"Cause that would suck. Tomorrow is Sunday!" Stiles said. He was laughing, though, and Derek gave him a chuckle. 

"I would much rather sleep in tomorrow and then get brunch than to be up looking for you to where I don't even want to go to brunch."

Stiles nodded as the one restaurant in town did a killer brunch from ten to two every Sunday. Stiles didn't often go as it was usually populated by people who were on dates, long-standing ones, or new ones. It was a place full of smooshy feelings, and Stiles didn't dig that too often when he was dateless. He pulled his empty mug out of his coat pocket and popped the lid off to fill it up. He watched Derek make himself a cup as well, adding just a touch of sugar to the mug before putting the lid on it. It wasn't nearly as cool as Stiles', but then not everyone paid out the ass for a custom mug like this. 

There wasn't much to do with that, so Stiles just raised an eyebrow at Derek. Stiles could do this. He could be escorted back to where the rest of civilization was and show his face and then head home and try not to scream in frustration at Derek being around him like this. He was dressed down in a thick sweater and a pair of jeans. He looked good. Stiles had barely noticed in the maze as his focus was on making sure that nothing bit him. Now there was nothing else to focus on.

"This is good," Stiles said as he raised his mug. 

"It's from the tea shop in town. I really like it. They make a version with every kind of tea, black, green, white, Pu-erh, herbal, and then rooibos. Each one has a very different taste under the spices. You can taste the pumpkin in it more with the white, but there is not a lot of caffeine in it, so it's not the best to wake up with." 

Stiles nodded his head. He had gone in there a few times but hadn't really known where to start, so he had just picked up the already bagged teas. He would have to make an effort the next time that he went in. The owner picked up the spices and teas from a supplier and mixed their own versions of some favorites from other places as well as many of their own blends. The faux line was a favorite, especially from people who moved to town from places that had large chains in them. Stiles really like one of the Tazo blends but didn't like it from the stores. It tasted stale in the boxes. He stopped in and bought a box nearly every single week. Coffee didn't go well with his Adderall as he got older, and he needed to keep a steady demeanor to be able to stay a field agent. He was okay with that as he only drank coffee to keep himself up during high school and college. Now he was doing pretty good with the teas that he found had enough caffeine to help him wake up but not enough to set him off. He only drank coffee if he couldn't take his Adderall like the case where it had been tampered with in his hotel room too far from home, and he had used it until his doctor could get something called into a pharmacy in the lower half of the state and get it filled for him. He hadn't trusted anything in his go-bag after that and replaced even his hand lotion. It had all be tested, and while his team thought that he was paranoid when there was arsenic in his lotion, they had stopped. He thankfully hadn't been off the Adderall long enough for withdrawals to set in, but it was long enough that the coffee had him jittery. 

"I see you go in there; what do you get?" Derek asked as they set off around the edge of the maze. They were not closed in by black curtains on all sides, just their right sides. 

"Just the bagged stuff. I don't know enough about making the loose, and while it's a research spiral I can start on, I just never have."

"I could show you sometime," Derek offered.

Stiles made an interested noise at that, but he wondered why Derek was offering. They had never really interacted. Derek had been too much older than Cora for him to want to hang out with Stiles and her after they started to become friendly. Then Derek was gone after the near-miss with the family, and things were strange. Derek didn't even come home for the holidays. The family went where he was. Stiles had missed Cora around the winter holiday when he was bored, especially the winter it was rainy more than anything, and his foot was in a cast. 

Small talk didn't come as horribly as it usually did when Stiles was talking to someone that he had a crush on. Derek was a lot different than he had been the last time that Stiles had been around him all that much. It was kind of really nice; he had toned down from the anger-filled person he had been when Stiles had last seen him. He was still kind of blunt, and Stiles liked that. Stiles pouted a little when they hit the edge of the fair. There weren't as many people around as before. It was mostly people from around twenties to forties, who didn't have kids and didn't need to be home at a certain time to deal with said children. Stiles saw his father and saw that he was getting ready to leave. There was a Deputy standing beside him, probably getting ready to swap off. 

"Did you drive or walk?" Derek asked.

Stiles looked at him. He had walked, but why would Derek even ask that. Yeah, Stiles had moved out of his father's house, but not many people actually knew that. Well, no one outside of those he was close to or worked with. Derek was neither of them.

"I see you running in this area of town, and it's too far from your father's house for it to be part of your routine. So that means you live at this end of town. So it's close enough that you could have walked."

"I did. I hate the parking for this, so yes, I walked."

"I'll walk you home," Derek said.

"And you think I need that?" Stiles asked.

"No, but I thought that you might like someone to talk to. I can tell you are worried about something. You don't have to talk about it. So don't worry about that." 

Stiles nodded his head and looked at his father, who was heading toward him. 

"Derek, how did it go?"

"Well, I've gotten some interesting feedback on my directions, and I learned not to have Erica inside at all, but other than that, it went well."

Noah looked right at Stiles.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"I hope he was respectful," Noah said, never looking away from Stiles.

"As much as he can be, and I believe him, Sir." 

Noah laughed at that. "Did you want a ride home, Son?"

"I'm going to walk him home, Sir." 

Noah looked at Derek and then back at Stiles.

"He offered, and we were discussing tea," Stiles said.

"Ah. Well, you two have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't."

"Like that leaves a lot. Mom told me all about the things you two got up to when you were both in college. There is little that I could get up that you didn't."

Noah said nothing, but he was laughing as he walked away. 

"Ignore him. He's tired," Stiles said. 

Derek laughed. "What would he think if he heard you say that?"

"That he should know better than to fight wit them. I'll stop helping him on cases and make him officerly ask for help." 

"You would really do that?"

"Shit, I have done that. Beacon County is getting a lot of shit from San Francisco County, which means that the drugs and a lot of horrible shit come this way more than it used to."

Derek pointed toward where they needed to go to make it to Stiles' place, so Stiles took that to mean that he wanted to head that way. Stiles figured that Derek wanted to get to bed. 

"You don't have to walk with me if you are tired."

"Not that tired, just getting cold since we were just standing still."

"Oh, yeah." Stiles could feel that chill creeping in as well, even with his coat on. He took a sip of the tea, still just as warm as his mug kept things hot for a long time. He took a large sip of it and felt the warmth in his gut, enjoying the feel of it. He snuck a look at Derek, who was paying attention to the street in front of them now that they were away from the fair to where there was traffic again. Derek took a sip of his tea. "So that got you into tea?"

"Uncle Peter. He loves it. I think that he pretty much single-handedly keeps Moira in business. He stocks the law firm with the tea in the communal areas. Though part of that is that that the smell of coffee makes him sick to his stomach. It was brutal for a few years when he lived with us after the fire. Mom griped all the time about having to get coffee when she left the house. I never got the taste for it like the rest of the family and usually drank Uncle Peter's tea. He used to be mock upset about it. I knew which ones to drink and which ones to stay away from. He guarded a few very zealously. I never touched those unless he offered."

Stiles told Derek about his experiment with coffee when it started to affect him a lot more and how he had turned to tea, but it was a little scary when talking about temps and times and all of that. So he stuck with an easy one that didn't get hurt if he did oversteep them. Derek laughed as Stiles talked about the first time that he did oversteep a black tea and fully regretted ever taking a sip of it. 

Then they were at Stiles' house, a little shack compared to most of the Hale houses. Stiles was pretty sure the one that the scary maze led out to was Derek's. He looked at his house and then at Derek. "This is me."

"Oh, it's lovely."

"Yeah, I figure that Allison will be moving in with me soon. She's back for at least the next little while. He usually doesn't last long living with her father and Peter."

"No, she doesn't. The house is plenty big enough for the both of you."

"I have the second floor, and she's got the third. I mean, my office is also on the third floor, but her bedroom is up there. I keep thinking I should move up there, and then she comes home."

"I'm glad that you and she stayed friends, even though she and Scott went through a to of stuff."

"Just who have you been talking to?" Stiles asked.

"Chris tells me a lot, especially when it comes to you and his daughter. He swears that he's going to make the two of you marry by the time you are thirty-five just so that you both will be at least married. Peter made the comment that whoever marries you would have to live with Allison being just as important."

"Yeah. Dad always thought that it would be Scott that would be that person, not the one I marry but the one who was important but then he found Allison, and things changed. I know that puberty is weird and shit, but I thought that it would be him and me to the end."

"I had fun tonight. Want to meet for brunch tomorrow?"

"Sure. At ten?"

Derek looked at the watch on his wrist before looking at Stiles. "Maybe eleven?"

"Oh, shit. Yeah. Eleven is much better." Stiles was shocked that it was near one. It hadn't felt like that much had passed. He walked up to his porch and dug his keys out before slipping his house key into the lock. He looked back and saw Derek still standing at the edge of the fencing around his yard. Stiles let himself in and shut the door, locking it before setting the alarm. He hadn't set it so that if he came back tired as hell, he wouldn't set it off again. He peeked out the window to see that Derek was looking up at the door and then turned around left. Stiles watched him walk down the street and head toward where he could slip into the Preserve earlier to head home. 

Stiles knew that Derek didn't have many friends, so he would be the best-damned friend he had. 

* * *

Stiles looked out into the back yard and found that it was covered in leaves. He was happy as hell about that. He couldn't wait for the dew to burn off of them, and he could rake them up and stuff them into the bags to make the stuffed pumpkins for his front yard. It was late for it, but he was happy to have just plain stuffed pumpkins for a Thanksgiving decoration. He had a turkey out there already. That he had got from the leaves that had fallen over the past few days. Last night it seemed like the rest of the leaves had lost their will to hang on as the two trees in the backyard were nearly totally empty. He had more than enough, he thought, to get what he wanted. 

Snagging his jeans from where he had laid them the night before, Stiles slipped them on. He went down to the mudroom and got his working boots on. He had just two days to get this done before he was out of town for a week for meetings in Los Angeles. He really wasn't looking forward to that, but it was part of his job. Well, it wasn't, but it was made part of his job. He was pretty sure that he was being groomed to take over the position of second. He didn't mind that at all with the pay bump, and he was taking a few online classes from one of the universities in the state that worked with working FBI agents to help them get extended degrees after they already had one. 

Once outside, Stiles took in a deep breath and exhaled. He enjoyed the smell of freshly fallen leaves. He was gonna head down toward the little cafe down the street to get breakfast before he started on other work in the yard. Normally during the week, he ate there and cooked at home on Saturdays, but he planned to eat there today. He had a standing meeting with Derek for brunch in town on Sundays, and Stiles hated and loved it at the same time. He loved that he was such good friends with Derek but hated it as all Stiles was doing was falling more in love with him. 

Stiles had tried to step back, but all that Derek had done was pout. That had made the Hales all give him the stink eye, so Stiles had bucked up and started to spend time with Derek again. At least once a week, Derek brought over dinner to eat with Stiles in the office if he was working late. It was almost like they were dating, but they weren't. 

Stopping at his front porch, Stiles grabbed his mug that he had left there the day before on his way inside. He shook it and hear liquid there. He popped it open and sniffed to find that the tea smelled fine, so he finished it off before heading toward the cafe. It wasn't quite that busy yet as it was still very early, the sun was not even all the way up. He found that many of the regulars were getting ready to leave, so he waited for his favorite table to be opened up, sitting at the counter and looking at the newspaper that was left there. He got all of the relevant ones on his phone, but he liked to read on paper every once in a while. Stiles stood up when the table was cleared, but as he moved, someone else sat down. 

It took Stiles a few seconds to recognize Derek. At least Derek hadn't sat down in the seat that Stiles likes. Stiles swore that Derek just liked to goad him. 

"Good morning," Stiles said as he sat down.

Derek gave him a smile and held up a finger before he tapped at his ear. Stiles nodded his head.

"No, no, Laura, don't even. I'm already dating. I don't need to be set up on a blind date with some school teacher that I don't know from two counties away. Stiles, tell her." Derek held out the earpiece, but Stiles just looked at it dumbly. 

Stiles wasn't good at lying to any of the Hales; it was like they were lie detectors or something. Stiles actually really sucked at it when it wasn't lying to get someone to give him something for work on a case. Braeden had been in town just two days before showing off the ring that her actual boyfriend had given her, which was not Derek. Stiles had been shocked, but it seemed that they were just friendly with each other from having met a long time before, and when Derek had moved back to Beacon Hills, she stopped in when she could to see him. 

"Stiles?" Derek asked.

"Dude, I can't lie to her!" Stiles hissed.

Derek looked shocked as hell.

"Let me call you back, Laura. It seems that I've having an issue with him." Derek hit a button on his phone and looked at Stiles. His face was unreadable. Something that Stiles wasn't all that used to. Derek was usually an open book to him, even after only two weeks. "Stiles?"

"Dude, I don't know who you are dating. I thought it was Braeden, but she's engaged to someone who is not you."

"You thought I was dating her and still went on dates with me?"

"Dates? We have not-" Stiles bit off on what he was going to say as he looked at everything through slightly different eyes. He had started to hang out with Derek with the thought that he was dating someone else. Someone who wasn't around every single day, and Derek had few friends outside of his family. He thought Derek was lonely and looking for a friend, not that he was interested in Stiles.

"I don't know what to say." 

"Dude, you've never actually used the word date when asking me to do anything. We always made plans to meet again. I don't even have your damned phone number!" 

"Well, I just figured you were cagey for some reason. You always showed up again. I don't know what your dating has been like before this. I was going to ask you for your number tomorrow at brunch so that I could at least text you while you are gone this next week. So does this mean you don't want to date me?" 

"No, hell, no. Shit. Yes, I want to date you, no, don't want to not date you."

Derek laughed at that, his smile that showed off his dimples. "Then, Stiles, would you go on a breakfast date with me?"

"When and where?"

"Here and now," Derek said.

"Yes." 

"Good." 

Derek looked like he was about to lean over the table and kiss him, but the waitress came over. Stiles placed his order, and then Derek did so as well. They got a pot of tea to share as this was one of the cafes in town that served local tea instead of just stuff from grocery store shelves. 

It was awkward when she left. Stiles half wanted to lean over and take that kiss, but he didn't want to just do that. 

"Move over," Derek said.

Stiles did as he asked, sliding into the seat that was closest to the wall. It was only because he trusted Derek that he allowed it. He normally didn't like to be boxed in. Derek pressed a kiss to Stiles' cheek, and his own cheeks were reddening up when he pulled away. 

"I knew I should have just given you a kiss when I walked you home."

"That long?" Stiles asked.

"You grew up good. I know that I did as well, but actually, it was before that. You were at the school talking to some of my students in September. One of them was talking about becoming an FBI agent, and a few other kids ganged up on her about it at lunch. You were in there eating, and instead of ignoring it like everyone else was, you got up and put an end to it. I had just arrived in the room to take over for someone else who needed to go take a call. I was shocked as hell when I realized that it was you. I was shocked, to say the least, about that. I just remember this ten-year-old kid who fell down the stairs at least once a day when you were over. So I was entranced by listening to you talking to them that I sat where the other teachers were and didn't hear a single bit of what they were talking about."

"Really?" Stiles shook his head at that. He knew that people liked listening to him giving speeches like that but never to that extent. "So I should share about the weekend I watched you run when you were doing it at the track when I was supposed to be watching a house? I had the front and a camera linked to a tablet, so I set it in line of sight and watched you running with the cross country team on the track at the school."

"So, we both are bad at this."

"Hey, I had nothing other than wanting to be your friend. Though that was just because I thought you were in a relationship with Braeden. I was gonna be your best-assed friend cause dude, you don't have many."

"No. Too many in town wanna talk about my exes. You have never asked, and I know you are inquisitive. I figure you snuck into your father's files or heard him talking about it enough to where you weren't that need to know about it."

"Or I looked at the files on the first when I joined the FBI. They were the ones that dealt with that, taking it from Dad's hands. His file was pretty thin on that, and yes, I checked. The second was a little harder to get info on, but since the way it went was pretty broad, her case was actually used in one of my behavioral profiling classes at the Academy. That was weird as hell, but you weren't brought up all that much, and your name was never actually said. It was pretty good considering. I didn't learn as much as the others, given I knew a little about it from other sources." 

Derek nodded his head. He looked a little interested in talking about it more, but Stiles didn't want to. Not on a first date. 

"So, what is your favorite color?" Stiles asked.

Derek burst out laughing at it, and it carried on until their food was dropped off. A few seconds later, their tea was as well. Stiles set about salt and peppering his food while Derek fussed with the tea. The leaves were already removed, but Derek was very particular about how the tea was poured into his cup. He added a little bit of sugar and a touch of cream to his cup before pouring the tea out.

"You know that back in the day, it was low-class people who put milk in their cup first."

"Really?" Derek asked.

"Because they had cheap cups and the hot tea would crack them if there wasn't milk in there to temper the heat of the cups. So being a milk in first person wasn't a good thing."

Derek nodded his head at that and shrugged his shoulders. "Putting it in first allows the tea to be the one to mix it up, and then I'm not clinking my spoon on the cup."

"Oh, I get it, and today it has no standing. It's just another Random Stiles Factoid no one wanted to know." 

Derek leaned over and kissed Stiles on the mouth for that one. "I always want to know them."

Stiles blushed and turned back to his food. He wasn't sure how to take this. How to take Derek at all. He was up for learning, though. So much up for learning.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> I write fanfiction for fun. It's a hobby and a stress relief. I refuse to stress over my writing. What you see is what you get. Errors, plot holes, and all. Thank you for reading my story! 
> 
> I can be found on MeWe [here](https://mewe.com/i/beccaqueen1), join me there and we can discuss my fics and whatnot.


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